Continuous testing To meet the goal of continuous everything, a new ap- proach to testing is needed. Testing should no longer be thought of as a stop along the delivery pipeline. Instead, testing must be an automated part of the continuous de- livery pipeline. By continually testing, you can spot and remedy potential problems at the earliest possible point. Continuous delivery Continuous delivery extends continuous integration principles and practices further downstream in the soft- ware delivery process. With each change, continuously testing and deploying code ensures that software is in a release-ready state. Continuous delivery enables changes to be moved into pre-production or production environ- ments, and eventually into the hands of users, in a rapid, repeatable and reliable way. Table 2-1 below provides an overview of continuous delivery. Table 2-1: The steps in achieving continuous delivery 25